New in Web Design

Is your website ready for the new year? Every year I see articles about trends for the upcoming year in the look and function of websites. No one knows for sure what will happen a year in advance and many predictions actually piggyback off trends that are currently developing.

theedesign.com blog and merehead.com's blog are both predicting more visuals, colors and animation - all safe predictions. But other potential trends are being given that are more ambitious.

2017 was a year when clean and simple websites that were optimized for mobile viewing. Though the trend to more visuals is predicted, image-heavy websites are slow to load on mobile. Mobile-first design for websites is now a necessity, and "flat design" is very trendy and will likely continue next year.

houstonwebdesignagency.com agrees agrees that mobile usage overtook desktop browsing this year, so there is no getting away from mobile functionality in a way we haven't seen on desktops.   They say that next year's buzzword in web design will be performance, specifically, mobile performance. Many of us would agree that our phones seem to outperform our computers. There is a good chance that your phone is newer technology than that laptop or desktop computer you own. Many people upgrade their phone annually, but keep their computers for several years.

A newer trend is the move to using a voice user interface. Natural language processing means human interaction with a computer in the form of speech. You are familiar with Alexa, Siri, and Cortana, but this technology goes back to the 1950s. Voice user interfaces have improved and can now handle some complex voice commands. Add to this AI and machine learning and the interface can predict your needs before you even finish your request. Though you can speak to Google's search engine on a computer, chances are you will still type "Italian restaurants new york city."  But on your phones, you would probably ask Siri "Where are the nearest Italian restaurants?" and because the phone knows your current location, it will find them and even give you directions to drive, take mass transit or walk there.

An aim for all websites for a long time has always been to make interactions seamless. But now, chatbots and voice user interfaces may be the way to do that. No clicking or typing.

Another seamless trend is using "micro-interactions." For example, let a user post a quick review by scrolling over a number of stars instead of submitting a form. The easier it is, the more likely a user is to do it.